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Bernie Sanders: It Will Be A Contested Convention

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 13:00 PST, Jun 4, 2016

Doubling down on prior campaign promises, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has vowed to keep fighting for the Democratic presidential nomination all the way to the Democratic National Convention. At a news conference on Saturday in Los Angeles, Bernie Sanders told reporters that he is going to fight beyond the primary season, all the way to the convention, and that he has every intention of claiming as many of the superdelegates pledged to rival Hillary Clinton as possible.

Hillary currently has 2,316 delegates. Of those, 1,769 are pledged and 544 are superdelegates. Bernie Sanders on the other hand has only 1,547 delegates. Of Sanders’ delegates 1,501 are pledged, and only 46 are superdelegates, who can support the candidate of their choice and can change their minds up to the official vote at the Democratic National Convention. In order to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, a contender needs to hit the 2,383 delegate mark. Hillary is expected to do that within the next few days, easily picking up the delegates she needs to score the nomination during the California primary, which has 475 delegates up for grabs.

In a “normal” election cycle, that would be the end of it. But the 2016 primaries have been anything but normal (a reality TV star is the presumptive Republican nominee), and Bernie Sanders swears that he will keep fighting the good fight until there’s nothing left to be fought for, reports CNN.

According to Bernie Sanders, he has enough clout to snag enough of Clinton’s superdelegates away from her to swing the Democratic nomination in his favor.

Essentially, superdelegates are “free-agent” delegates not bound by the popular vote, and while they can assure that they will support one candidate or another at the time of state primaries, they can change their mind at any time before the delegate count at the convention.

“The media is in error when they lump superdelegates with pledged delegates. Pledged delegates are real. Hillary Clinton will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the end of the nominating process on June 14. Won’t happen. She will be dependent on superdelegates. The Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention.”

Bernie Sanders is correct about one thing: without superdelegates, Hillary doesn’t have the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination.

Bernie has been very critical of the media for “lumping together” the pledged delegates with the superdelages. According to Sanders, it’s misleading to group pledged delegates with delegates who don’t officially pledge their vote and have it counted until the Democratic National Convention in late July. Or, as Bernie Sanders so succinctly put it “six longs weeks from today.”

Here’s what social media has to say about Bernie’s vow.

https://twitter.com/Dial_Dancer/status/739239809126965253

https://twitter.com/zaojh/status/739206432231444480

While Bernie Sanders has sworn to his loyal following of die-hard fans and voters that he will contest the Democratic nomination all the way through the convention, he has been very clear that the odds of clinching the Democratic nomination are not in his favor. Be that as it may, though, Bernie Sanders, the Independent Senator from Vermont swears he will try until there’s nothing left to try for.

“We understand that we have a steep climb. I’m not here to tell you that tomorrow we’re going to flip 300 superdelegates. You don’t hear me say that. But I am saying we are going to make the case.”

The majority of U.S. states and territories have already held their Democratic caucuses this presidential election season, and both their pledged delegates and superdelegates have been tallied. However, Bernie Sanders does have a few stages left to make a case for himself before the late July convention. California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota hold their primaries on June 7, and Washington, D.C., holds the final nominating contest of the primary season on June 14.

If Bernie Sanders has a chance of securing the Democratic nomination, he’s going to need an impressive performance in the California primaries. There are 475 delegates up for grabs in that state alone, awarded proportionally.

While Bernie Sanders is doubling down on his vow to fight until the end, Democratic Party insiders are reportedly working to find a way to unify the party behind its front-runner, Hillary Clinton.

What do you think? Is Bernie Sanders right to fight through the convention, or would the party be better served if Sanders got behind Clinton?

[Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images]

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